Just How Close to a Train Track Can You Set Up a Vegetable Market? Pretty Damn Close!
HT: Lee Brown
CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Thursday, May 19, 2011
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Previous Posts
- 4 of Our Top 5 Imports Have Fallen in Price
- Amazon: Kindle ebooks Outsell Printed Books
- "Big Computer" Made Almost $100 Billion in 2010
- Corn Yields Have Increased Six Times Since 1940
- Partisan Grading: Democratic Professors Are More L...
- Two Shopping Trends
- TIPS Breakeven Spread Falls to Three-Month Low
- Will Apple's Profits Be Investigated Next?
- If It Moves, Tax It. If It Keeps Moving, Regulate It.
- Tax Rates (%) X Tax Base = Tax Revenue ($)
10 Comments:
Wow. Imagine all the violations this would involve in the US.
Quote from Stone Glasgow: "Wow. Imagine all the violations this would involve in the US."
True. We'd most assuredly need to send in armed government enforcers to clean out this den of high risk behavior, for these people's own good. (I wonder who decided to put the rail line down this path?)
So! You want those potatoes mashed!
I've heard a guy on the radio say that the rest of the world looks like the bar scene from Star Wars. Here's visual proof!
Sidewalk vendors, push-carts, jitney drivers, recreational drug purveyors, prostitution, speakeasies--all of it should be legalized.
Sadly, nearly all local governments outlaw people working for a living for themselves, when it comes to low capital, low barrier to entry businesses. Try being a push-cart food vendor in your city. Try offering drinks for sale on your front porch.
This is one reason why I support a minimum wage. We basically outlaw the Average Joe from setting up his own business, so he must work for somebody else.
If we would nationally mandate a Right to Commerce on public areas, then I would advocate getting rid of minimum wage.
Setting a minimum wage is exactly like setting a minimum price requirement for the veggies sold on the street. If it is high enough, people shop in supermarkets instead, or reduce consumption of veggies.
If the min wage is high enough, people hire machines instead, or don't hire as much low skill labor. So we get more unemployment and less productivity.
What bugs me is that there are folks that will see this and think these people need to be protected and outlaw this. As a result of a desire to "protect" people from the clear dangers they have chosen, the people could end up in a much more dangerous trade, like the sex trade.
The folks that want to "protect" these people by ruining their lives often somehow end up in charge.
Sidewalk vendors, push-carts, jitney drivers, recreational drug purveyors, prostitution, speakeasies--all of it should be legalized.
Sadly, nearly all local governments outlaw people working for a living for themselves, when it comes to low capital, low barrier to entry businesses. Try being a push-cart food vendor in your city. Try offering drinks for sale on your front porch.
So far so good. You have taken rational approach to reducing poverty.
This is one reason why I support a minimum wage. We basically outlaw the Average Joe from setting up his own business, so he must work for somebody else.
It did not take long to become irrational and sabotage your previous arguments. If the government does something stupid you don't fix it by having it do something just as stupid.
"What bugs me is that there are folks that will see this and think these people need to be protected and outlaw this."
Don't worry, Marko, that video wasn't likely shot in an OECD country, so while those people may have many other problems, safety nazis isn't one of them. There are SOME advantages to living in a third world country.
Marko-
The sex trade is dangerous? Crickey, for most of my life I gave it away--until there were no takers.
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